Other Issues

China is drafting new standards on animal slaughter to make the practice more humane. The central China province of Henan has already adopted the measures, which include stunning the animals before killing them, and herding pigs with plastic prods instead of electric ones. China has been criticized by animal-welfare groups for its treatment of animals, including bears farmed for their bile and dogs for their meat.

Other Issues

Foreign athletes famished for Chinese food may find their appetites are not satisfied in the Olympic Village during next year's games, according to a menu distributed by the organizer. Asian-style food, including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean dishes would together account for 30 percent of the menu designed for athletes in the Olympic Village. Western food will comprise most of the menu.

Other Issues

Work on the Beijing-Shijiazhuang canal, a 300-kilometer project intended to boost the Chinese capital's scarce water supplies for the 2008 Olympics, will be "basically completed" by the end of the year. The canal, linking Shijiazhuang in neighboring Hebei province to Beijing, would divert 300 to 500 million cubic metres of water from four Hebei reservoirs next year. The 17.4 billion yuan (US$2.35 billion) aqueduct is needed to guarantee supplies to the drought-stricken capital where reservoirs have dried up and water tables have sunk dramatically.

The world's highest mobile phone base station has been built on Mount Qomolangma, also known as Mount Everest, at an altitude of 6,500 meters. The station, run by China Mobile, the largest mobile phone service provider in the country, will provide service for mountaineers on the world's highest peak and the torch relay for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Other Issues

When it won the right to host the Olympics in 2001, Beijing promised that it would treat 90 percent of the 2.78 million cubic meters of waste water produced every day in China's capital, and recycle half of the resultant effluent. The commitment on water treatment was already surpassed last year, and officials are certain the second target will be met when a new treatment center starts functioning in December.

Other Issues

The Beijing municipal government has spent around 430 million yuan (US$57.3 million) diverting a river to replenish its Olympics rowing and canoeing venue, which has run dry. Water will be diverted 13 kilometres from the Wenyu River to the Chaobei River, which has run dry for nine consecutive years. The Olympic rowing and canoeing center in Shunyi was built especially for next August's Games and features a three-kilometre rowing lake which holds 1.7 million cubic metres of water. The diversion project will improve the environment and scenery around the venue during the Olympics.

Other Issues

China is confident that the Olympic flame will successfully weather strong gales, downpours, sudden hail and thin air to burn brightly and beautifully on the world's tallest peak of Mount Qomolangma. China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp. designed the torch for the 2008 Games. It is made to withstand adverse natural conditions such as thin air, gales, glaring sunlight, and hailstones.

Beijing's urban planning authorities have approved planning permission for six new subway lines, on which work is scheduled to begin by the end of the year. The city aims to raise the proportion of citizens choosing public transport from the current 30 percent to 45 percent by 2015, and the subway passenger volume will increase to eight million a day from the current 2.2 million.